Gameplan Georgia

“What Can I Do?”

Since the election, that’s the question people keep asking.

Here’s our answer: If you live in Georgia, your best shot at making a big difference is to help break the GOP supermajority in the state legislature.

Why? Because Senate Democrats need ONLY ONE seat to break the GOP supermajority and that will help us to block rightwing constitutional amendments.

Here’s how we do it.

The Political Situation in Georgia

In the Georgia state legislature, Republicans have a supermajority in the State Senate (36-18) and a near supermajority in the state House (119-61) That means they can pass any bill and override any veto with a single Democratic vote between the two chambers.

It’s important to understand that the overwhelming GOP control of our state legislature is not the result of the GOP’s popularity, but are rather the result of the extreme gerrymandering they conducted while implementing the new districts in 2011.

In short, they were in charge of drawing the districts, and they drew them to pack as many Republicans into the state legislature as possible. As one of them recently said, “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map in a way to help foster what I think is better for the country.”

As a result, the GOP is in total control of the legislative process.

The Opportunity

But there’s an opportunity to change that.

Recruiting good candidates and building a volunteer base to support them begins NOW.

No matter when the next election is – the basic strategy will remain the same: win enough seats to break the supermajority.

Our Essential Tasks

1) Join Our Digital GOTV Team

The Georgia Democrats need ONLY ONE seat to block the Republican Supermajority.

We are launching a digital get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort, and we need your help in two ways.

As elections approach, we’re going to send team members articles, infographics, and ready-made social media content about the upcoming election. You’ll have the opportunity to pick and choose what to post and send to your friends – we’ll just supply you with content. Over 40% of the electorate gets their news from social media, so your posts can make a big difference!

Here’s an example of an infographic that shows how close we are to breaking the supermajority in the Senate. You could post this to any of your social media accounts and add a couple sentences about why it’s important to vote.

Join our Digital GOTV Team –

2) Recruit Strong Candidates

We need your help to identify – and perhaps become – one of our candidates.

Start by taking a look at your hometown and seeing who represents you. Here’s a map of the state Senate.

If it’s easier to type in your address to find out what district you’re in, you can do that here.

When you find your district number, here’s the list of the state House members and here’s the list of state Senate members.

Once you know someone who might be interested in flipping a red seat blue (even if it’s not you), let us know so we can answer any questions and, if they decide to run, start supporting them as soon as possible.

For those with little to no experience running a campaign, please know that we have a full-time staff that works with our candidates and helps them become competitive. Even before you decide to run, our staff is more than happy to review the district with you, go over the numbers, and help you build your own GamePlan. That’s their job, and they’re good at it.

Prospective candidates should be in touch here –

3) Build a Volunteer Base

We can give our candidates a strong start by connecting them with a group of volunteers who are ready to go as soon as the campaign begins – and having a built-in volunteer team will go a long way in helping us recruit strong candidates.

If you’re willing to be a future volunteer for a candidate in your area, let us know. When there is a declared candidate in your area, we will send you their contact information so you can get involved.

Future volunteers should be in touch here:

4) Build a Skill Bank

We’re fortunate to have lots of individuals with special skills that are willing to be a resource for our candidates. If you’re interested in taking on a bigger role in a campaign and you have a background in campaign management, volunteer coordination, field organizing, graphic design, video production, social media management, website production, or any other helpful skill, please reach out here.

5) Promote Strategic Fundraising

What if there was a fund that only existed to support highly competitive candidates in the closest races? A fund whose sole purpose was to be highly strategic in making the difficult decisions about which candidates have the best chance of winning and then only funding those candidates?

There is one!

If you have particular candidates who you know and feel strongly about, please support them. But if you don’t know a candidate – or if you’re the type of person who wants to make sure every dollar is used strategically – then you can give directly to the Senate Democrats.

You can contribute online here.

Summary

If we accomplish these essential tasks, we will have an excellent shot at breaking the GOP supermajority and completely changing the political landscape of our state.

If you have any ideas for items we should add to our Gameplan, please contact us at info@gasenatedems.com